Determination of the Absence of German Citizenship Upon Application

You must submit a written application to determine that you do not hold German citizenship and to obtain a certificate stating that you do not hold German citizenship; we will provide you with an application form upon request. Persons aged 16 and older are eligible to apply; for persons under 16, the legal guardian(s) must submit the application. The application should be submitted to your local municipality before you file it with us so that the municipality can provide its opinion. Once we receive the application documents, we will contact you. In some cases, you may be required to visit our office in person; we will inform you of this in due course.

Once you have demonstrated a legitimate interest in the requested determination, we will proceed to examine whether you do not, in fact, hold German citizenship. For this purpose, it is sufficient if we can rule out that you have acquired German citizenship; we need only examine whether you have lost German citizenship if we have determined that you have acquired it. In all cases, official investigations will be conducted and, if necessary, a written hearing will take place. The time required to process your application depends on the accuracy of the information you provide and the completeness of your application documents; this also includes the information and documents necessary to demonstrate your legitimate interest in the requested determination.

If desired, a decision on the application for a determination of the absence of German citizenship may be made by issuing a certificate of the absence of German citizenship (“negative certificate”). The “certificate of non-citizenship” is not an official German certificate of citizenship, but rather an informal certificate bearing a signature and an official seal; it is issued for an indefinite period but only attests to the legal situation as of the date of its issuance. Experience has shown that it is generally recognized in other countries. If a legitimate interest in the determination of the absence of German citizenship is not credibly demonstrated, or if German citizenship is determined to exist, a notice of denial may be issued.

An application for a determination that German citizenship does not exist is admissible only if there is a well-founded and legitimate interest in such a determination.

This interest in obtaining a determination could exist, in exceptional cases, if a foreign authority (e.g., passport authorities) requests it in order to assess whether you or your children hold foreign citizenship. As a rule, however, it is sufficient in such cases to obtain a certificate from the German immigration office with jurisdiction over you stating that you are treated as a foreign national there. Under these circumstances, obtaining a “certificate of non-citizenship” from the citizenship authority is generally unnecessary and would entail unnecessary costs for you.

If, at the outset of the proceedings, all relevant evidence indicates that you do not hold foreign citizenship but only German citizenship, the application is most likely inadmissible and will be rejected on that ground alone, because there is no legitimate interest in obtaining a determination. This is intended to prevent the citizenship authority from having to deal with applications for a determination of the non-existence of German citizenship that are filed in abuse of the law.

German citizenship is acquired in accordance with current German citizenship law:

• by birth to parents who are German nationals, or by birth in Germany as the child of foreign parents, provided that additional conditions are met (Section 4 of the German Nationality Act (StAG)),
• through the declaration—reserved for only very specific groups of people—that they wish to become German citizens (Section 5 of the German Nationality Act),
• through adoption by German citizens (Section 6 of the German Adoption Act (StAG)),
• by issuing the certificate pursuant to § 15(1) or (2) of the BVFV to repatriates (§ 7 of the StAG)
• through naturalization (Sections 8 et seq. of the Naturalization Act (StAG)),
• After twelve years of being unjustifiably—though not through any fault of her own—treated as a German national by German authorities responsible for matters of nationality (Section 3(2) of the German Nationality Act (StAG)).
• We cannot discuss here the historical grounds for acquiring German citizenship or the changes that have taken place over time.

German citizenship could be lost as of June 26, 2024:

• by release or waiver (Section 26 of the StAG),
• by acquiring foreign citizenship upon application without prior authorization to retain German citizenship,
• through adoption by a foreign national,
• by joining the armed forces or a comparable armed group of a foreign state, or by actively participating in combat operations carried out by a terrorist organization abroad (Section 28 of the StAG),
• by a declaration by persons subject to the option requirement who hold multiple nationalities that they wish to retain a foreign nationality
• by revoking an unlawful administrative act (Section 35 of the StAG) or
• due to the retroactive legal elimination of the grounds for acquiring German citizenship for children under the age of 5 (Section 17, paras. 2 and 3, of the German Nationality Act (StAG))
  
  

As of June 27, 2024, the following grounds for loss of German citizenship have been eliminated:

• by termination
• by acquiring foreign citizenship upon application
• through adoption by a foreign national
• through the declaration of persons subject to the option requirement.

In addition to the documents listed under "Applications/Forms," the following documents are required:

A) A personal statement of reasons and written evidence demonstrating a legitimate interest in obtaining a determination, along with a certificate of registration

B) Information and documents proving lineage and identity; acceptable forms of proof include:

• a German or foreign birth certificate
• Family Registers
• Travel Documents
• Proof of your current marital status
  
  

C) Possible evidence of not holding German citizenship or of holding foreign citizenship:

• Current residence permits issued by the Immigration Office
• Documents Relating to the Loss of German Citizenship (Certificate of Renunciation, Certificate of Waiver, Certificate of Rejection)
• Previous negative determinations regarding your German citizenship
• foreign naturalization certificate
• Proof of Adoption by Foreign Nationals
• Foreign national passports (yours and your parents')
• A current, expanded German certificate of residence in which only foreign nationalities are listed.

These documents should be submitted either as originals or as officially certified copies. Documents in a foreign language must be accompanied by a translation certified by a sworn translator.

The fee for determining, upon application, whether a person holds German citizenship is 51 euros. A fee of 51 euros is generally also charged for the rejection or withdrawal of an application after the substantive review has begun.

Section 30, paragraph 1, sentence 1, and paragraph 3, sentence 2, of the Nationality Act (StAG)

Section 38, paragraph 2, sentence 1, item 2 of the Nationality Act

The negative certificate is not proof of identity. It cannot be used for travel or as a substitute for identification. As a general rule, foreign citizenship is not certified.